Heroes recap: “Powerless” – airdate 12/03/07 (S2E11)

Mohinder, bearing the cure-all blood, returns to his apartment in New York City where Sylar and Maya are waiting for him. “Hi, Dr. Suresh. What happened to your nose?” snarks Sylar. Things go downhill quickly when Maya lets slip that Sylar has lost his powers. Sylar pulls out a gun and Maya freaks, firing up the black eye goo of death until Sylar orders her to get it together. It is decided that they should all go to Mohinder’s lab for some blood work, and then Mohinder can cure Sylar and Maya. Nathan, Parkman and Mrs. Petrelli have a brief confab, then Mrs. Petrelli tells them where the virus is being held (Odessa, Texas) and the boys head off after it. As they leave, she thinks at Parkman that if he can’t change Peter’s mind, he may have to kill him: one shot through the head, just like Adam. Speaking of the devilishly handsome, he and Peter are strolling through Primatech in Odessa, Texas, when Hiro freezes time on them. Hiro and Peter spar a bit until Peter grabs the samurai sword and sends some voltage through it, knocking Hiro out. Time unfreezes and Adam looks down at his old friend Carp, then takes the sword, saying, “I believe this is mine.” Both Adam and Peter are looking delicious today, I might add.

Claire going through her father’s stolen files, adamant in her decision to go public and expose the Company. Her mom thinks it’s a dangerous idea but Claire is not to be dissuaded, snottily tossing her a you-don’t-know-what-it’s-like-since-you-don’t-have-abilities. Back at the Company, Elle is getting a serious dressing-down from her father. Bob tells her she can’t go out in the field any longer and stresses how disappointed he is in her. Elle is really upset, upset enough to apologize. When that doesn’t work, she goes to see Mr. Bennett and pretty much begs him to tell her what her father did to her. Bennett tells her that Bob had ordered the testing on Elle to continue even after she passed out from the stress and pain. She was seven years old at the time. Yikes. Elle runs out when Bob stops by to tell Bennett that Claire is causing trouble. Bennett is sassy at first and then starts to worry about his little girl.

In New Orleans, Ali Larter is trying really hard to act like a worried mom. Fortunately, Micah comes home soon and convinces her to help him find the kidnapped Monica. Primatech employees are getting tossed all over the place as Peter and Adam stride through the halls looking for the virus. “I believe it’s up to the left,” says Adam and, at a you’re-kidding look from Peter, protests, “Oh please, it was 30 years ago!” They find a big old vault and Peter gets to work opening it because he still stupidly trusts Adam. Plus, Adam reminds him that “the woman [he loves] is trapped in some horrible future … you can change that.” Oh whatever. Peter just needs to get over Caitlin already.

Sylar, Mohinder, Maya and Molly go into Mohinder’s lab (formerly known as Isaac’s studio). Mohinder is none too gentle taking a blood sample from Sylar to see what kind of virus he has. As he draws the blood, he looks up at the smoke detector … which is a hidden camera feed that Elle pulls up on the computer in Bob’s office. When Sylar turns towards the camera, she jumps up eagerly. “Sylar! Oh, Daddy, you’re going to be so proud of me.” That poor girl needs some serious therapy. I am really enjoying Kristin Bell in this role. Back in New Orleans, the thug has tied Monica in some derelict building. He splashes some gasoline around while she tries to reach her cell phone … which Micah is tracking by talking to it through his mom’s cell phone. He’s also changing all the traffic lights to green in their favor. Neat!

This next bit is hilarious. We hear, “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Slow down!” and Nathan, with Parkman riding piggyback, touches down on front of the Primatech building. Parkman jumps off and a grimacing Nathan stretches out his back, which totally cracks me up because Greg Grunberg is roughly twice the size of Adrian Pasdar. “We don’t talk about THAT ever again,” insists Parkman. “Agreed,” moans Nathan. As they turn to go into the building Hiro appears before them on the loading dock. He sees Nathan: “Flying man!” Parkman’s like, “Who is this guy supposed to be?” and Nathan tries not to roll his eyes too obviously.

West interrupts Claire and asks her to not go public with all the Heroes’ secrets, telling her – and rightly so – that exposing all the Heroes is not going to bring her father back. She hands him his Company file and tells him to get the hell out, turning around so he can’t see her sad face. Mr. Muggles yaps at her, then yaps at the front door which opens. Mr. Bennett walks in, “Hello, Claire-bear.” Claire’s face turns bright red and she tries not to faint at the sight of her alive and looking-good-in-all-black dad.

At Mohinder’s lab, Molly tries to locate Alejandro for Maya. She tells the older girl that her twin is dead – “he’s not anywhere” - and, predictably, Maya does not take that well. Just as Mohinder discovers that the Company injected Sylar with the same strain of virus that Niki has, Maya shrieks, “You killed my brother!” But before her eyes can rain black death upon everyone in the room, Sylar rolls his own eyes and shoots her. It’s friggin’ awesome. And long overdue, if you ask me, given how annoying Maya has been. “Now look what you made me do,” Sylar grumbles. Hee hee hee. While Molly whimpers, Sylar insists that Mohinder test the cure-all blood first on Maya and then, if it saves her, use it on him. A beaten Mohinder pulls the cure-all out of his bag and Sylar sighs. “You had it here all along? You and I have trust issues, Doctor.” Hee hee.

The Bennett family is fuh-reaking out over the return of their patriarch. Mr. Bennett tells Claire that she must cease and desist her quest to expose the Company. He has made a deal: if Claire lies low, he’ll go back to work for the bad guys. Claire sobs as her father, a Company man once again, walks out. In the Primatech basement, Peter has wrenched the vault door open. Hiro pops in to stop them and Peter telekineses him against a wall, choking him, as Adam goes into the vault. Parkman storms up, mind-pushing with all his might: “Let Hiro go. Go after Adam – he’s evil.” Unfortunately for Parkman, Peter is a much quicker study and starts mind-pushing back. Just as he’s about to smash Parkman into the wall, Nathan steps out to talk to his brother. Nathan uses his real superpower, Brotherly Love, and convinces Peter that Adam hasn’t been on the up and up. Peter rushes to the vault.

Meanwhile, inside the vault, Adam, who is holding the super-virus behind his back, and Hiro are in a standoff. There’s some back and forth (you were my friend, you killed my father, I’m going to live forever, etc.) before Hiro grabs onto Adam and teleports away … but not before Adam drops the vial containing the virus - uh-oh! Luckily, Peter enters just then and snatches up the vial before it can shatter. That was a close one. Peter destroys the virus with a finely controlled radioactive flare. The three amigos decide that the only thing to do is to hold a press conference and expose the Company for what it is. Nathan suggests that Parkman can use his mind-push to make sure that the public really hears the truth. However, the vault is of course on a hidden camera in the vent and while we aren’t shown for sure, I’m pretty sure Bob is watching that feed.

At the lab, the cure-all brings Maya back. Oh well. Sylar is way more psyched than I am and wants his shot right now. Elle picks now to come in, shouting Sylar’s name, fingertips crackling. He shoots at her. There’s much breaking glass as she hits him with some serious voltage but he manages to run out, clutching the cure-all. Down in New Orleans, Monica is about to get extra-crispy as the thug sets the basement on fire. Micah and Niki have tracked her down, however, and Niki swerves her little sedan in front of the van to stop the thug’s getaway. Even without her super strength, she pounds him – a swift kick to the nuts, then some pistol-whipping (this may be the first moment in this show’s history that I’ve actually liked Niki) –and runs into the burning building to rescue Monica. Monica makes it out but Niki is trapped. The building explodes, right in front of poor, probably orphaned Micah. Well, she wasn’t much use without her multiple personalities anyway.

Hiro teleports back to Japan and informs Ando that Adam/Kensei will never hurt anyone again: Hiro has teleported him into a coffin in the Nakamura family graveyard plot. Can someone who can’t be killed die of starvation? That’s pretty horrible. And damn cold – Hiro is one step closer to being a bad ass. Elle returns to the lab, moping that Sylar got away from her. She perks up a little when Mohinder thanks her, saying they owe her their lives. She is grateful for their gratitude.

Parkman and the Petrellis have set up their conference in the Odessa police department. Nathan starts speaking and goes on WAY too long with the introductory comments, although this gives the producers ample time to flashback on almost every important scene in the show’s 1.5-season history. But, because he takes too long, Nathan gets shot twice in the chest before he can tell anyone his secret. Peter clasps his (dying? not if they can get his birth daughter’s magical blood to him in time!) brother in his arms as Parkman gets a glimpse of the assassin. It looks like Mr. Bennett. A little while later, in New York, Angela Petrelli is on the phone with someone, tears glittering in her eyes. She says, “I know, it was unavoidable,” then adds, “You do know that you’ve now opened Pandora’s Box.” And that’s the end of Volume Two.

Volume Three: “Villains” – Sylar, a bit crispy around the edges from Elle’s high voltage blast, shoots up in an alleyway with the cure-all blood. His wounds quickly heal and he reaches out, fingers quivering. An empty can (spinach) flies across the alley, compliments of his newly returned telekinesis. “I’m back,” he growls, satisfied. It would have been funnier if he’d said, “I am what I am,” what with the spinach can and all, but I guess they weren’t really going for funny. And that’s all the Heroes we get until 2008.